Raise the Dead: A Jane Eyre Retelling by Clare Nina

Author:Clare, Nina
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: lost&foundStories
Published: 2023-10-13T00:00:00+00:00

7

GALL AND WORMWOOD

A fitful night, full of oppressive, half-conscious thoughts was ended by a blood-curdling shriek rousing me from strange dreams into a stranger reality.

‘Jane!’ shouted my husband, sitting bolt upright and feeling for me to assure himself of my presence. ‘What the deuce was that?’

I scrambled from our bed, snatching up a wrapper, saying, ‘It must be Cora,’ as I ran barefoot from the room.

But it was not Cora; she was sat up in bed, clearly as rudely awakened as myself, her dark eyes round with alarm. ‘Oh, Mrs Rochester, did I dream it? I thought I heard a dreadful scream!’

I left her room with a quick injunction for her to wait for me, and hurried to the south wing of the house.

‘He’s dead!’ wailed Pauline, running down the hall towards me. ‘Dead! I said it were a fetch, I said it were!’

‘Stay there!’ I ordered, pushing past her to the guest room. The tray bearing the cup of tea she had been sent up with lay on the floor, the china smashed, the tea forming amber pools on the waxed floorboards.

Mr Mason’s corpse was a ghastly sight. ‘Oh, God, have mercy!’ I cried. ‘Must the curse prevail?’ And then I blinked hard, for I thought I heard a soft sigh – soft as a downy feather. I held my own breath, listening hard. I moved nearer the bed, placing a trembling hand just above the open mouth of Mr Mason, then fled the bedside, pushing wide the door, calling out, ‘Pauline! Cease that noise and send for Dr Fry – Mr Mason lives!’

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